‘To turn Balapur panchayat into municipality’

HYDERABAD: The government has floated a proposal to turn six villages of Saroor Nagar mandal - considered part of Old City by a large number of residents - all of which are a part of a gram panchayat into a municipality.
According to sources from the Ranga Reddy district collectorate, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) had recently floated a proposal to turn the six villages – Balapur, Jalpally Jillaguda, Kothapet, Meerpet and Pahadishareef into an urban local body.It was earlier reported in these columns that many residents were of the opinion that the gram panchayat should be converted into a nagar panchayat or be a part of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Ranga Reddy district collector M Raghnandan Rao said that the move comes after the area acquired an “urban character”.
Explaining the term, he said: “Such decisions are usually taken when 75 percent of the population is engaged in occupations other than agriculture. Development in such areas needs to be regulated. The funds in a nagar panchayat when compared to a gram panchayat will have much more funds and help in development. The staff will be more than in a gram panchayat,” he said. While the proposal has been floated, a notification calling for objections and grievances will be issued shortly, he said.
But as it turns out, over 20 ZPTC and MPTC members are opposing the move. One such member, J Narender Reddy, said that the proposal will deliver a blow to residents in the villages as they belong to lower income groups. “A large number of people are not from affluent backgrounds. Once the area becomes a nagar panchayat, the taxes, especially property tax, will increase. It is not possible for them to pay up,” he said.
Other MPTC members, who did not wish to be identified said that the five year term of both MPTCs and ZPTCs had not expired yet. Changing the nature of governance, they said should have been done before these elections. “Hardly a year has passed since we were elected. The conversion from gram panchayat to nagar panchayat should have been done then,” an MPTC member said.
However, contrary to claims of both ZPTCs and MPTCs, residents said that the GP was starved of funds and development in the areas was scant. Ghaysuddin Waseem, a resident of Shaheen Nagar which is a stone’s throw away from the GHMC covered Barkas, said that the area is bereft of a water pipeline. “We still use gram panchayat’s dug bore wells. It is ironic that the Krishna water pipeline passes through our neighbourhood and we don’t receive a single drop of water from it,” he said. Corroborating the statement, officials from the panchayati raj department said that of the 140 bore wells in the gram panchayat, only about 40 function during summers. This, they conceded, was inadequate to meet the demand.
Other residents opined that the ZPTC and MPTC members were more concerned about losing their seats than the welfare of their constituents.